it had lost the scent. Then it stopped altogether and dropped against my chest, where it hung still. It didn’t move again.
“I thought you said you could find them?” I asked it, but it was quiet and dull against my chest.
It was worth a try, I guess, I thought. But the more I thought of dowsing to find the thieves, the more foolish I felt. Surely Mother Morevna had already tried this. It was pretty obvious, after all. Besides, she was a much better dowser than I was. And what was I supposed to do? Go outside the walls?
I shuddered, thinking of all the things that were supposed to live out there. But part of me, a part of me that I’d never been able to talk sense into, was curious. What all did live out in the desert? What horrible, unseen creatures had been created just to populate the world of the Game? We’d all heard stories of fire coyotes—once I’d even seen their glow and heard their howls on the horizon. But what else was there? In the back of my mind, I remembered the shadow on top of the wall on Mourning Night, just before the vision of the rain came.
What if…? I thought suddenly. What if Mother Morevna and Mr. Jameson were wrong? What if the thief was someone from outside the walls? Someone still out in the desert?
We all knew that there were people in the desert. Very, very few people, but they were there, farmers who had chosen to stay with their land, mostly, although what child in Elysium hadn’t heard stories of the terrifying cannibal men who roved among the wreckage in the desert? What if one or more of these people had grown brazen after Asa escaped them? What if they planned to attack?
I had to go back and tell Mr. Jameson. But as I squinted into the darkness, I saw his porch light was off. He must still be in his office, I thought. I headed back toward the church, toward its sharp black shape jutting into the sky. Nearby was the hospital, the second-tallest building in Elysium, a second monolith looming in the dark. But as I watched, a light came on in the hospital office.
Only the overnight nurses were supposed to be there, in the wings with the patients. Why was someone in the office?
I heard footsteps and, without thinking, ducked into the shadows of a nearby windmill. A man was walking toward the steps of the hospital, where one of the nurses opened the door and held it for him. I couldn’t tell who the nurse was, but the man’s Stetson hat was as distinctive as my blond braids. In his arms he held what looked like a stack of water rations.
“Well, if it isn’t Sallie Wilkerson,” said a voice that sent a flash of fear up my spine. I turned and Trixie Holland was standing there with another girl from school, Mae, one of the ones who had chased me only a week before Trixie broke my nose. “I’d say I missed seeing you at home, but that would be a lie in so many ways.”
The penny around my neck began to grow hot against my breastbone. I took a step back.
“Your nose looks better,” Trixie said, coming up to me and looking me up and down. “And look at you! You’re clean. Looks like you finally learned how to take a bath.”
“Leave me alone,” I said, my hands balled into fists.
Trixie put up her hands. “Lord, I was just making conversation. You going to magic me into the ground or something?” She laughed and took out a homemade cigarette. “We were just out here catching a smoke. We didn’t expect to run into the Successor herself.”
Mae smirked, her already lit cigarette glowed.
“Mother Morevna’s teaching you all kinds of magic, huh?” Trixie said.
“That’s not what I heard,” said Mae. “Mrs. Winthrop told her son that Sal’s just been sitting around, reading. She says that Sallie can’t even do magic.”
“Awww, how sad,” said Trixie. “Imagine being made to feel special all of a sudden only to find out that you’re not. You must have really believed it this time, huh? I feel for you, Sallie. I really do.”
“I can do magic,” I said.
“Let’s see some of it, then,” Trixie said. “Turn Mae into a mouse!” They laughed uproariously at the very thought.
I wanted to turn them both into mice and their cigarettes into traps. But I couldn’t.
“What’s that